Venturing Women

Nadine Mezher was eager to spearhead change in habits and attitudes to handling money in the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa). She wanted to democratise access to investing and make it available to not only the ultra rich. Nadine co-founded Sarwa, a platform for investment and personal finance. In 2022, Forbes recognised Nadine among 20 women behind Middle Eastern tech brands. A fashion...

How do you launch an innovative business in uncharted territories? Alina Bassi realised she could apply principles of coffee waste management to recycle textiles into… plastics. A chemical engineer, she launched Kleiderly in a foreign country, with no language skills, and out of network. She masterfully addresses challenges of two industries simultaneously: textile waste management and plastics ma...

All-women startup teams receive less than 3% of the venture capital globally whilst male-led startups collect 89% of it. And as if this statistics wasn’t depressing enough, the trend is negative. It’s getting worse every year. Venture capital investors share their views on the reasons behind such disparity. What are its consequences? What are we as a society missing out if this gap perpetuates? An...

Many businesses start with the future founders trying to solve an issue they face personally. FemTech startups (female technology) are no exception. Here, however, many areas are emotionally loaded and wrapped into layers of taboos. Fatoumata Ly shares how her own story of trying to conceive evolved into addressing the centuries-old issue countless women face. Fatoumata is now building Ninti, a co...

‘Be the change you want to see in the world’ sounds like a fulfilling life motto. But how do you put it into practice? How do you leave a positive mark in the world and enjoy the ride along the way? Ultimately, we all have just one life to experiment with. Jacqueline van den Ende aims to unlock 1 billion dollars of capital to help power climate solutions. That’s a big dent in the world to make! Ja...

Can you become a better leader in 2 min a day? Yes according to Darja Gutnick, Co-Founder & CEO of Bunch, an AI leadership coach. Darja also shares her own story of how losing key people on her team and going through a split-up with her co-founder made her better leader. Topics we discuss: How can data help you to answer the deepest question about yourself? How technology and AI tools specific...

Mental health and marketplaces - both are hot topics! Isn’t it a great idea to build a marketplace for mental health services? Viktoria Lindner and Leonie Ellerbrock, co-founders of Mindsurance, share a story of launching such a marketplace and then walking away from this model. Topics we discuss: What’s the difference between building a perk (a nice-to-have) and a sticky product that delivers tru...

Can FOMO (fear of missing out) be a market opportunity? Sonia Weymuller realised many people were seeking ways to invest into tech startups and be a part of the startup buzz. Yet, there was no platform in the MENA region to do so. Sonia Weymuller is a Co-Founder and General Partner of VentureSouq (VSQ), a MENA-based venture capital firm, and Partner Lead for the VSQ Conscious Collective, its globa...

Polina Mikhaylova co-founded KNOT, a micromobility company, in 2015, long before shared scooters came into vogue. Terms like ‘free-floating’ or ‘swappable batteries’ didn’t exist yet. Polina is a true enthusiast of docking stations. Can they be the future of shared micromobility? Topics: Users in big cities are spoiled with easy access to shared scooters and bikes which comes at a cost of safety a...

This is a joint episode with the Female Business Angel Podcast hosted by Katia Yakovleva and Bettine Schmitz. We launched our shows more or less at the same time, one year ago. Darya, Bettine and Katia talk about one year of podcasting, their learnings, angel investing and the outlook for female founders. About Katia Yakovleva Katia is a Berlin-based entrepreneur currently working on her next vent...

Imagine you are invited to give a talk at Stanford about your work as an investor. Excited, you board a plane to cross the Atlantic. And a conversation with a seat neighbour on that flight changes your whole life trajectory. You are now adamant about building your own business. That’s exactly what happened to Penny Schiffer, CEO & Co-Founder of Raized.ai . After 10 years in venture capital, Pe...

If you launch your own business, just forget about having a life. It’s only work, no play. And your friends and family will need to accept it. This notion is particularly popular in the startup world but how much truth is in it? We asked Jenny Holmström, CEO and Co-Founder of Coupleness, an app helping couples to develop healthy habits for happy relationships. Jenny and Darya examine why maintaini...

Her first job was as a saxophone player. Later, she worked on producing Star Wars and Fast & Furious in the Abu Dhabi desert - and absolutely hated it. Now an established IT professional, Karen Burns is the CEO & Co-Founder at Fyma, a computer vision company enabling data-driven urban planning. Karen knows best what change is, on personal and professional levels. She and her co-founder lau...

9 out of 10 startups die, and the first years of any startup existence are the most challenging to navigate. This is where business angels can offer invaluable support to founders along with so much needed capital. Rita Vilas-Boas is a marketing professional, entrepreneur and angel investor focusing on consumer-centric startups. She is particularly interested in impact and women-led startups.  In...

What do you do if after 10 years of a successful corporate career, you feel the need for a big change? Can you make a career pivot, start in a new area and still be credible? Your track record may have helped you to get that new job or a promotion. And the same track record may hold you back from making a leap of faith into building your own business or starting anything new. Vanessa Westphal is C...

How do you build an indoor farming company to produce delicious salads at scale and make the food system more sustainable? You may need to start with a greenhouse on top of a shipping container as an MVP. Then raise >100mln of euros of external funding. But most importantly, you’ll need to create a company culture based on values that aren't just some words on your website. Kate Hofman is...

Less than 0.5% of venture capital goes to women of colour founders. Is it a pipeline problem rooted in a lack of such founders? Perhaps, women of colour simply do not dare to build high-growth businesses? Stephanie von Behr , Co-Founder and Managing Director of Founderland , debunks these myths. She is focused on increasing visibility, creating community, and getting more women of colour founders...

Founders and investors alike should be excellent signal processors. But what if you are navigating an environment that your ‘sensors’ are not attuned to? You can adjust those sensors and blaze a trail. You can transform your drawbacks into unfair competitive advantages. A woman, a foreigner, and an engineer, Maria Dramalioti-Taylor shares her story of breaking into the venture capital industry. Ma...

Despite the glamorous image of venture capital, it’s not a funding source that fits all. Who should and who absolutely should not raise venture capital to finance their business? How can you make the fundraising process less painful? And finally, is there a way for an outsider to break into the VC industry? Dr. Gesa Miczaika offers straight-forward and deep answers to these questions. Gesa is the...

‘I am on a mission to make organic food mainstream, accessible to everyone regardless of their income level.’ While doing so, Adriana Luna-Diaz is building a profitable bootstrapped business based on the principles of holacracy (decentralised management model). Adriana is co-founder and director of Tierra de Monte, a Mexico-based AgriTech company. Forbes Magazine named Adriana among the 100 most p...

The way we listen to and create music has been undergoing a massive change with the rise of technology. To discuss this change and what it feels like to build and sell a business, I invited Hazel Savage. A music industry veteran, she co-founded Musiio, a music technology company, in 2018 in Singapore. In spring 2022, Hazel and her co-founder Aron Pettersson sold Musiio to SoundCloud. Prior to that...

‘Retail is dead’ proclaimed many media during the pandemic. We were all locked up in our homes and in terms of clothing, mostly needed sweatpants and pajamas. Yet, Ani Bagdasaryan opened a brick-and-mortar store in Berlin in 2021 to build up on the online success of her fashion brand. Some of the topics we explore: Career pivot: from a marketeer to a fashion brand owner. A mixture of analysis, pas...

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What is Africa’s biggest treasure?  Many believe it's the continent's natural resources.  But what if it's Africans themselves? Specifically, African women. The backbone of the African economy, African women are the most entrepreneurial in the world. It’s statistically proven.  In this episode, I am speaking with Lelemba Phiri, gender-lens angel investor and operating partner for En...

Equity and company shares are usually far off the radar of the general public. Equity seems to be a term from the glamorous  world of the startup founders and investment managers in ties and Bentley cars. Yet, things are changing. I sat down with Naïma Camara, CEO & Founder of Ownership, to discuss the evolving role of equity. Dynamic equity not only allows founders to attract talent even when...